How to read and understand everything you read in 2023.
To some students, reading is a problem (it used to be a problem to me too), to some others, they don’t have any problem with reading.
To these later set of students, they read but don’t understand. Whatever your case is, I am going to give you awesome tips on how you can read and understand.
I call it awesome tips because I used to find it difficult to read, (though understanding wasn’t as much difficult to me), and I easily forget what I read until I learnt these strategies.
It really was a great concern to me because I needed to make a good grade and I know you too want to graduate with a good grade.
I started seeking solution. I was talking to friends about it and my efforts eventually paid off. A good friend of mine, however, gave me just a study tip that turned things around for me. That is why it is good to have good friends. And now, I see you as my friend so I’m going to reveal this secret to you because I want you to succeed. Experience, they say, is the best teacher.
I am not going to reveal only this one tip to you. I will also give you some other tips that I figured out myself later, which was really helpful to me. Sit back, relax and employ these tips as I unveil them.
So if you have been searching for:
- Reading tips
- How to read and understand
- Reading strategies
- How to remember what you read or,
You have been wondering:
- How can I remember what I read?
- How can I read and understand?
- How can I prepare for an examination?
Search no more because I am going to do justice to this topic. Even if you have not been understanding this article, before you finish reading these tips you will start understanding, Lol.
Now let’s take a good look at the tips:
1. Get a Time Table
Contents
The importance of having a reading time table cannot be overemphasized when it comes to effective reading and understanding.
The time table will help you maintain a plan. It will also help you to be target driven. When you know that today you should study, say Chemistry for X-number of hours; and tomorrow, you should study Accounts for p-number of hours, you will surely be focused.
This will in turn instil discipline in you. So I urge you to prepare a time table for yourself if you are really serious about reading and understanding.
How to Prepare a study Time table that will work for you:
- List out all the subjects or courses you offer
- If the whole of them is equal to seven, assign a subject/course to each day of the week. Make sure you put those subjects/courses you find difficult in the days you are usually less busy, and put the ones you find simple in the days you are usually occupied.
- If the courses/subjects are more than seven, assign two courses/subjects to some of the days, but make sure you don’t combine two difficult courses/subjects in one day. Do one difficult and one simple subject in a day.
- Assign duration to each of them. Here, I wouldn’t recommend any duration. Choose what is best for you according to your body chemistry. But as a rule of thumb, make sure it is at least two hours per day for each course. However, it will not be a crime if you exceed the time while studying. By duration I don’t mean when to start; I mean how long to study. You can decide to start whenever you wish – for me I prefer reading in the midnight.
Make sure you follow the time table religiously, like a doctor’s prescription (I’m your doctor now). If symptom persists after seven days, consult the Chief priest, hahaha.
2. Get Rid of Every Distraction
If you know anything that will pose a distraction to you, keep them aside when you read. Turn off your Mobile data (and keep your phone away from you), keep girlfriends/boyfriends aside, turn off the television, etc. and concentrate.
3. Read with Focus/target
Before you set out to read each day, give yourself a target of what you are going to achieve. For instance, you can say to yourself, I must learn that quadratic equation today. You must not kill yourself to meet your target but try your best to achieve it.
Recommended for you: Easiest way to pass JAMB and gain admission
4. Always observe a Recess.
During my orientation in Year one, one of the speakers said “stop reading when you stop understanding”. Therefore, always observe a short break whenever what you are reading is no longer assimilating. Doing otherwise will result to the law of diminishing returns. Go back to your books when you are re-energized.
5. Study with the Right Text-Book
During my secondary school days I struggled to understand mathematics because I studied with New General Mathematics (the recommended textbook). However, a friend introduced me to Sureway mathematics and things changed. The new textbook explains everything in simple terms whereas the former assumed I have the foundation already.
Note: I’m not in any way promoting nor demoting any textbook.
6. Know the Best Time for you.
Some people tend to understand better when they study in the noon, others in the night. According to your body chemistry, find out what works best for you. As for me, I prefer night – midnight. What I do is, I make sure I sleep well and take enough rest in the noon then I will wake up in the night, take a shower and read when everywhere is already calm.
7. Summarize what you Read.
After every session, take time to summarize what you have read. Take note of the important points. They will serve as your memory verse. You can always refer back to them after reading to keep your memory refreshed.
8. Ask yourself questions after reading
Based on what you have read, ask yourself some questions and try to answer them. Any one you can’t answer, refer back to your book.
9. Solve some Exercises
When you are done reading, the best way to seal it up is to solve the exercises that follow. Usually, most text books come with exercise questions at the back. Ensure you solve all of them. The reason why it is important to solve everything is because they usually start with simple questions and end with difficult ones. So if you start and stop halfway, you may think you have got the gist without knowing that there are still more difficult ones.
If you can’t finish all the exercises, make sure you solve the first five and the last five.
Happy reading…
Follow me on Facebook for more Gists. Also remember to subscribe to my blog to always be the first to get my new Gists